Exclusive Q&A with Gossip Girl Costume Designer Eric Daman

by Alison Cohn

Teen Vogue caught up with Gossip Girl costume designer Eric Daman at RdV recently. Read on for the dish on what defines Blair and Serena's Columbia look, the elevated style of his new holiday capsule collection for Charlotte Russe, and a full view of these dress-up-worthy frocks.

If there are two things we love at Teen Vogue, they are watching all of the amazing clothes on Gossip Girl each week and getting dressed up ourselves. Tell us: How did your holiday capsule collection for Charlotte Russe come about?
I had worked with Charlotte Russe previously as a creative consultant. They brought me on about a year ago to elevate the brand and to give it that "Gossip Girl/Eric Daman" touch. I really wanted to develop our relationship further, and they suggested I do a line. I was like, well, I don't want to do separates. Can you see a Serena Van Der Woodsen T-shirt? So I decided to do party dresses!

Seems like a good place to start.
It was a very good place to start. It just feels very germane to what I do on the show--and to what you can't usually get for this kind of price point.Read on for more on the collection and to get a peak at the look book!

Would you cite Gossip Girl as your main inspiration for this collection then?
Yes--and no. I didn't just want to say, 'oh this is my Blair dress,' or 'this is my Serena dress.' But I did want the line to represent the mood we create on the show of a heightened fashion reality. It's exciting to be able to give girls a bit of that experience of a very glam aesthetic--for under $49.50.

As a costume designer creating your first collection, do you feel you bring something different to the table than someone with a formal background in fashion design?I want every dress to have its own personality, and for a girl to try on a different character when she tries on a dress. I want there to be the visual of 'oh I'm a '50s girl in the blue net dress,' or 'I'm a modern minimalist in the cutout dress.'

Sounds like perhaps you designed your dresses to embody more abstract 'types' than the specific sense of 'character' we think of on TV. Could you see any of your dresses on the Gossip Girls though?
Well, the polka-dot dress would look great on Blair. And there's an asymmetrical peach dress that is very Serena.

Let's talk a bit more about the show. Is it a new challenge this season creating looks for the girls now that they are at Columbia?
They've become Upper West Siders! And of course, they're going to college. The schoolgirl thing really gave us a nice Pythagorean theorem version of "Oh, we're going to do fashion, but we're going to do it schoolgirl." Always a bow-tie and a little pleated skirt! To make Blair and Serena into modern fashion-icon adults is a bit more difficult.

If you're trying to envision, say, "Columbia Blair," what would you say are the girls' defining style elements now?
Columbia Blair for me is very minimalist lines, very severe, very serious. She's not this flippant little queen of Constance anymore; she has to prove herself as a powerful woman.

And Serena--has she changed?
I think Serena has always kind of done her own thing. It just is what it is. It's very sexy. It's very, like, 'I don't care, I'll throw this on and I'll look amazing.'

Click through the slideshow to see our favorite looks from the collection!